two years

Mike and I have been together for two years. Wow. So much has happened in that short time, I'm not even sure where to begin. I'll make it easy on myself and everyone involved by leaving it at this: I love him more and more every single day. Thank you for being you, babe. 

Disneyland

Mike and I have decided to celebrate our anniversary this year by taking a vacation and going to Disneyland. Call me cliche, but Disneyland is my absolute favorite place on earth. I really do think it's magical, and every time I go, or even think about it for that matter, I get as giddy as a five-year old girl doped up on funfetti cake opening birthday presents. Seriously, I am a die hard Disneyland fan. If we lived in LA, you bet we'd own annual passes. And you bet we'd be there every weekend. Every day. Every waking hour they were open. You get the picture.

Anyway, so we planned a little trip. Booked a flight, hotel room, bought 2-day Park Hopper passes, yada yada. We did this probably a month ago, and while I've thought about it nearly every day since then, I only just realized this afternoon that we will be leaving in less than two weeks. And while I am so extremely overly-excited for this trip, I am also so extremely overly-anxious even thinking about leaving Ava for three nights. Yes, I know that we are leaving her in the safest of all hands, but still, this will be the first time that we spend a night away from her. And it won't just be one night, it'll be three. Three! Three whole nights! Ninety-six consecutive hours we will be away from her. 

I am sure that I will suffer total mental breakdown on more than one occasion before then, and I know that kissing her goodbye and leaving her will be equivalent to having my heart ripped out of my chest, rolled around in the dirt, stepped on, and blown to pieces with a shotgun, but it is something I must do. Something I must learn to accept. As a mother. I must do it and accept it as a motherly duty. But six months is so soon to separate! Shouldn't she be eighteen, packing up for college, and driving into the sunset only to return for holidays and occasional weekends?

I understand that I am blowing this completely out of the water, but yes, I am nervous. And sad. And I don't want to leave my baby. Even if it does mean I get to visit the most Magical Place on Earth. 

But this is something that I owe to myself. And I owe to Mike. And we owe to each other. So yes, I must do this. And I can. And I will. Just as long as I can make 2192890183 phone calls to check-in and reassure my unnecessary anxiety. 

I mean, come on, how am I going to ever be able to leave this face?

Love this Laugh

Mike is amazing at getting Ava to laugh. I don't know what he does, but he just looks at her and she starts cracking up. I, on the other hand, have to work my butt off to get even a giggle out of her. So while Mike bats his eyelashes and causes an uproar, I'm doing jumping jacks, shouting Ava cheers (complete with A-V-A hand motions), and doing the Salsa all while balancing eighteen books and a fruit bowl on my head. Here is just a little preview of what Mike can get simply by doing "the claw" at her. God, I love my husband. 

Baby Be Belly Sleepin'

Ava conquered the difficult task of rolling from back-to-stomach at four months old. I feared the day she'd discover stomach-sleeping is much more comfortable than back-slumber. I was lucky for a solid month and 13 days. I came in one afternoon to her sleeping on the floor on her belly and I just about had a heart attack. I instantly jumped to the ground and rested my hand on her still back to check for breathing. "Mike! Mike! She's not breathing!", I screamed. "Yes she is, I just checked on her". Turns out it's just a little more difficult to feel her breathing when she's on her belly. After my near-anxiety attack subsided, I turned her over on her back and faced my fear not-so-boldly in the face. The belly sleeping has indeed arrived. 

Now that she's a belly-sleeper, she doesn't stay in one spot during the night. She'll turn on her side, turn on her belly, back onto her side, shimmy sideways, stick her butt in the air, make a 180, pull her blanket free from it's tucking, kick the bunny across the crib, spit her pacifier 8 feet across the room. Seriously, what is it with this child's sleeping habits? I thought I moved a lot in my sleep, but apparently not as much as this crazy kid. I'm beginning to think she inherited all of Mike's sleeping habits, who is unknowingly performing advanced Yoga positions while dead asleep. The first time I slept in a bed with Mike I nearly died when I saw him bent in two at the end of the bed -  I didn't see him at first and thought he got up and left in the middle of the night. So, I guess I now have two wacko sleepers on my hands. 

Congrats, Babe!

Da da da daaaaaaaa! Today Mike received great news that he is being given his own store!!! 31st & Peoria....and he starts tomorrow. I am so proud of him! He has gone from barista to store manager in less than two years - AMAZING!!!

I love you babe! Keep up the great work!

mah babies.

Sausages for Toes

Things have been really great lately. I'm almost finished with school (2 weeks!) for the semester, I'm feeling healthy and happy, and things are finally coming together in preparing for the baby. Mike and I had an ultrasound earlier this week to check on Ava. Apparently my first ultrasound back in July showed marginal placenta previa, so my midwife wanted me to get it checked out to make sure it had corrected itself. Luckily, it did, and Ava is healthy and happy as ever. She's head-down now, gradually dropping herself into place, and weighs almost 6 pounds. They say at the rate she's going we can expect her to weigh between 7 and 8 pounds when she's born.


Along with good baby news, Mike has been offered an interview for a Store Manager with Starbucks. He is the only assistant in his region that has been offered an interview, and he'll be competing against a handful of outside-applicants. What an honor! I am so proud of how far he has come with the company - this is such a huge accomplishment for someone his age. He's a little worried that he won't be able to handle it with school and a new family, but I know that he is capable, and that he'll be a wonderful manager, father, husband, and student! The interview is in January, which means he doesn't have much time to prepare if he decides to go for it. Please pray that his faith in himself and incredible soul lead him in the right direction during this amazing opportunity.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

Mike doesn't cook. Sure, he can make boxed macaroni and cheese (kinda), or toast waffles and heat up syrup, but his cooking skills are not the best. Occasionally he will offer to help me in the kitchen, usually grating cheese or setting the table (okay, not cooking, but still). We always joke that he would starve if I wasn't around, and we often wonder what he did before I was here to feed him. Mostly, he ate out, or simply didn't eat. Yeah, I know. 

On his days off we will usually sleep in, then I'll get up and start breakfast. The breakfast of choice lately has been eggs and "country-fried potatoes" (according to Mike). This morning I thought we would do things differently and I would teach Mike how to make breakfast. We always joke/worry that once Ava is old enough to eat people food Mike won't be able to feed her if I'm not around. He defends himself by saying "the dads are supposed to be the cool ones that order pizza". Riiight. So onto breakfast we went. 

I pulled everything out for him and set it up. I washed the potato, got out the eggs, oil, spices, cutting board, pan, knife, and spatula. I walked him through each step. I showed him how to heat the pans, and flip the potatoes without smushing them. He was doing great! Next came the eggs, which were a little trickier. He hesitated only when it came time to actually flip the egg. After I demonstrated how to flip the first one, he did the next two perfectly. The only thing he wouldn't touch was my ham, so I had to grill that myself. Hey, as long as he made the rest of it, who cares. 

I set the table while he served up the plates. I was surprised, his breakfast looked almost better than mine. But then I thought, wait a minute, now that he knows how to make breakfast...next is dinner! 

 

"I've never been bored one day with you"- Mike, while having drinks at T.G.I.Friday's

I love being married. I love everything about it. I love that Mike and I are young and learning things on our own, like signing up for benefits and car insurance, or changing names and documents and bank accounts, or making a grocery list and shopping together, or having the courage to say "I don't think we can afford that" to the other. I love going to bed and waking up next to the same person, every night and every day. I love the amazing sense of security. I love leaving love notes around for each other. I love relaxing in silence, and knowing the silence is okay. I love watching out for someone else. I love being as One. 

I keep thinking, "this isn't happening to me". 

The truth is, I never imagined I would be where I am today so soon in my life. Just over a year ago I was set on being independent until my mid-twenties, just quietly living the single life and having a "good time".  But then Mike came into the picture, and everything changed. Quickly. Very quickly.  

When I first met Mike, I was sitting in the back room at work counting the daily deposit. He popped his head around the corner and asked to speak with my assistant manager about an application he turned in. She introduced us, and he left. I didn't think twice about it. 

A week or so later he was working in my store, as an opener, the same shift I worked. We hit it off almost immediately, and I was so relieved to finally have an accomplice in the daily "fun" of Starbucks. You know, sharing sarcastic humor, inside jokes and imitations of problem customers, and music (because Starbucks' music rocks). I really have to credit the music here, because Feist is really what I think got the ball rolling. 

I say Feist because, one: if you have ever listened to her, you will know she is amazing, two: her new album was to be released right around the time Mike and I started hanging out, and three: I loved her, and Mike loved her, and this we both knew. So one day I read this article online about how Feist's album release date was pushed back. "What?!", " Seriously?!", " No!", and "I have to tell Mike!" popped into my head at once. I thought this was the perfect chance to start an out-of-work conversation so I sent him a text message informing him of the news. He was at school, and we began small chat on who knows what. The conversation ended with a date and time to get together the following week. Might I add this was not "a date", at this point, there were no feelings involved. 

Long story short: the first night we hung out was amazing. This ultimately led to a summer full of endless fun. Eating pints of Ben & Jerry's, night swimming, countless shows, Chipotle burritos the size of our heads, passing out on the dirty condo floor listening to music, last minute trips to Tucson, picking me up for work at 4 am, Harry Potter reading contests, laying in the middle of my yard on a mattress at midnight, riding bikes, long walks from the condo to my place, margaritas (extra salt for me, please!), mattress shopping, afternoon movies, and getting one hour of sleep several nights a week. Just to name a few. 

I couldn't get enough of this person. We would open the store together and work 4am to 1230 pm, go home, and call the other no later than 1pm asking "wanna hang out?". It was a fabulous cycle that never seemed to end. I would have felt clingy, but I didn't, because this person clung just as much back. 

It wasn't until a couple of months later that feelings started to set in, and confusion on whether or not risking this friendship for a relationship would be worth it. I later found out that Mike felt the same way for at least as long as I did, although neither of us knew of the other's feelings. Finally, after Mike and Jack had stayed with me for almost a month during their remodel, Mike made his move and kissed me. 

Things pretty much snowballed from that point on. I moved out of my place and into the condo with him, he proposed, we got our little surprise of a pregnancy, and now we're married. All within 8 short months. Those thoughts of being single until I was 26 left my mind so fast, I'm not sure where they went. I just knew from the very beginning that Mike and I were meant to become something much greater than those summer nights. It also proves a strong point that "when you know, you just know". Few understand this crucial point. 

I am so blessed to have found such an amazing person so early on. Every single moment we share together are moments that I will never forget. I love that I found someone to grow and evolve with, someone who understands me, and someone who I understand. Someone that I always have fun with, whether it be as dull as setting up a car insurance policy or as exciting as leaving town for a few days. Someone that I know will love me for the rest of my life, and that I will love forever, too. 

A Wonderful Wedding!

Mike and I are now husband and wife!! The wedding was absolutely wonderful. Everything turned out so beautifully, and everyone had such a great time. We are so sad it's over so soon. 

Married life hasn't felt very different yet, surprisingly. I don't have a wedding band, so perhaps that might add a little to it. Mike says he feels so different, but I'm almost positive it's mostly because of his ring. I catch him looking at it admiringly several times a day. It's cute, I think. It is so exciting, getting your ring, and having that little constant reminder of the amazing love you have. I've had my ring for several months now so that shock is somewhat over for me, but I know how he's feeling. Besides the ring though, there are other little things that feel different. 

For one, my name is now 'McCurley'. I haven't had to use it but once, and it was quite awkward. I was on the phone scheduling my ultrasound, when the receptionist asked for my last name. It came out sort of like this: "bbb..uu...mm..m..McCurley!". Mike was in the other room, laughing.

Secondly, I get to say "husband", and Mike, "wife". For our honeymoon we stayed at this adorable bed and breakfast in Sedona. Our first morning there, we noticed the menu included sausage, so I took it on myself as a new wifey to visit the chef and request that "because my husband is a vegetarian, is there any way we can get eggs instead of sausage?". It came out surprisingly naturally, but I still felt sort of out-of-body saying it. It was both exciting and scary! Mike, the wonderful husband he is, has also taken the liberty to start introducing me. Over the Fourth of July weekend we attended a couple of friends' family barbeques. This is how it went: "Hi, I'm Mike, and this is my wife, Sophie". It's adorable because Mike says it before I even have a chance to say anything, so I know he just loves it. We feel all "grown up and stuff". 

Then there are other little more insignificant things that make me feel married. For example, I get really excited when I make Mike food. I love making him a meal that he enjoys. Lately I have been bringing him homemade breakfast to work during his lunch break (it's usually early, around 9 am). I feel proud to be a wife, and to "serve" my husband. Perhaps I should find a more friendly word to use than "serve", but there is a certain satisfaction that I get out of doing things for him that make him happy, for example, filling his belly. I think I fit pretty perfectly into the role of "wife" (and Mike, husband). This is not to say that I will completely lose sense of "who I am" in my new role, but just that I am very much enjoying this new part of my life.